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Business Operations

Starting a Business: Your Products and Services

August 25, 2021 by Sarah Lakhani Leave a Comment

When you’re starting a business, you’ll probably have lots of ideas.  So much so that they might all be jumbled together.  They bleed into each other, making it difficult to really give shape to any one idea.  Not knowing how to separate and crystalize your ideas is a real but often not-talked-about obstacle to getting your business started.  It can even be an obstacle for those who have existing products and services and want to offer something new.

If you’re currently in a corporate and looking to ‘escape” and start your own business, you can read all about when to to do that here.

Before we dive into putting together your products and services when you’re starting a business, let’s define a few things. This is how I define the following terms, because it helps when me (and my clients) know exactly what we’re referring to:

Products & Services: These are the major categories that give an idea of what you provide your customers.  For example, these can be business coaching, journals, candles, photography services…

Offers: This is how you package your products and services to create something of high value to your customers.  For example, 1:1 business coaching program with 12 60 min sessions, 1 year journal with manifestation pen, subscription box for handmade candles, wedding photography package with 150 edited photos and a physical photo album…

Getting started on your offer

Offers are how you position your products and services so that they become attractive to your customers.  And to find out how to create an offer, you need to know your customers really well, listen to their frustrations, wants and needs, and find a way to put that together for them at a price that they are willing to pay.  Let’s dive into this some more.

Take the pressure off your offer

The first thing to realize is that your offer doesn’t have to be your BIG offer, your main offer, or even a permanent offers.  Businesses create offers and then change or remove them all the time.  So take the pressure off, and realize that you not only can change your offer in the future, but that you most likely will.  The reason for this isn’t that your offer will need “fixing up”, but rather, that you will definitely get feedback and should always look for ways to add more of what your customers want into your offer (and remove the thing they don’t want).  

Understand your customers’ needs

The second thing that you need to do is map out all the things your customers are looking for when it comes to the products and services you provide.  Once you have all of that written down, you can begin to create the offers that come up frequently in terms of their wants and needs.  These can sometimes be super clear combinations that your target audience has specifically asked for, but they can also be pieces that you’ll put together.  

Check back with your customers

The third thing you’ll want to do is to check back with your customers.  Did you get it right?  Is the offer that you’re putting together something they’re interested in?  Is there anything they would change, add or remove?  Getting feedback before you start saves you a lot of time and energy.  When you gather feedback before you create your offer, you can be confident that your target audience is interested in it and will buy it.  

Great, now you have your offer mapped out.

Articulate your offer

Next, you’ll need to find the absolute best way to describe it.  When you do this, remember that there are people who want to know what the “nuts and bolts” of your offer are, and others who will be drawn to the benefits.  You want to talk about both in order to maximize your chances of connecting their needs to your offer.  Some people like to know how many minutes, modules and lessons are in a course.  Others are sold on the transformation.  And most need a bit of both.  

Market and create your offer

Lastly, you’ll create your offer – while marketing it.  There is no need to do this in succession.  You absolutely can start marketing before your offer is ready.  Create that intrigue, that curiosity.  Begin to warm up your audience and get them ready to purchase as soon as your offer is available.  If needed, you can create a waitlist.  Otherwise, just start talking about your upcoming offer and let them know it’s coming soon!

Final thoughts

In the end, you run your business, and you have the ability to make all your business decisions in the ways that serve you and your customers best.  So approach your offer-creation activities with an open mind and a willingness to experiment and play with it.  This philosophy and way of running your business (and your life!) will serve you in ways that’ll make you wonder why you never did them in the first place.  

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Filed Under: Business Operations Tagged With: getting started, offering, offers, products, products & services, products and services, services

Starting a Business: Do’s and Don’ts

August 4, 2021 by Sarah Lakhani Leave a Comment

They say hindsight is 20/20.  And I’d have to agree, especially when it comes to starting a business.  When I look back at the past year, I can easily see all the things I did that served me and business, and all the things I did that didn’t really have an impact.  And it’s not just me.  Whenever you talk to entrepreneurs, they’ll tell you that they made a lot of mistakes, learned from them, and in parallel did a lot of things that moved the needle for them, too.  So here’s my advice when it comes to starting a business – my do’s and don’ts of starting a business.

These 5 things are the biggest lessons I learned when I started my business.  If I were to start my business from scratch, I’d keep these at the top of my mind.  The good news is that you get to learn from my experience.  You have the opportunity to take the shortcut.  And really, that’s what coaching provides.  Guidance, support and a map of the shortcuts that will get you results faster and with less stress no burnout.  So let’s dive in! Here are the 5 things I would make sure to do if I were to start over.  

Lesson #1: Know what your revenue-generating activities are, and make sure you’re doing those every day. 

Add non-revenue generating activities to this, but never drop the revenue-generating activities.  I spent months getting my website perfect.  And although I love the idea that I have a website I’m proud of, and I am a firm believer in creating a website, I would caution against spending too much time on it.  I would also caution against being focused solely on your website.  Your website is important, but it’s even more important to make sales.  So if you’re building your website while making sales, incrementally improving or adding to your website as your business ticks along, then great – you’re doing the right thing.  But if you’re pausing everything to work on your website, as I did, then you’re missing the opportunity to actually start making money in your business.  And the sooner you actually start, the sooner you’ll learn what works and be able to adjust your sails for maximum growth.  

Lesson #2: Do thorough research before you settle on your business. 

When I first started my business, it was a completely different business idea.  I researched it, I interviewed people, and although the people I interviewed told me they would not pay for what I was creating, I continued to create it.  But I quickly realized the error I made, and I changed my focus.  With this new focus, I didn’t do any research and I didn’t interview anyone.  That idea died quickly.  I then spent a lot of time learning, researching and formulating my new business idea.  This one made sense.  I found clients and signed a few on.  This new direction was well researched, but on top of that, my clients helped me make changes (and continue to inspire the changes I still make) in my business to bring it to where it is now.  

Lesson #3: Sign on clients or get customers as early as possible in your business. 

It took me 2 months to sign on my first client.  That’s not bad, but it’s also not great.  I now know I wasn’t doing enough to try to get my first client.  I posted a little here and there on LinkedIn.  I spoke to a couple of friends about it, but I know I could have moved faster.  And although this isn’t a race, nor should it ever feel like your business is a race to success, there would have been some benefits from starting earlier.  I would have learned earlier what my clients need.  I would have created my program earlier.  I didn’t start engaging with my ideal client until months after I established my new business idea.  By engagement, I am referring to both marketing and just spending time on social media, finding people who fit my ideal client description and talking to them.  

Lesson #4: Find your business tribe (or partner). 

When I started my business, I didn’t have a group of business-owner friends to share ideas and thoughts with.  I spent my days working on my own, building my business and whenever I needed support, someone to talk to or lean on, or a second opinion, I reached out to friends and family.  But it’s not the same.  Friends and family are great, and getting their support definitely makes a huge different, but they don’t know much about starting a business (unless they, too, have started their own businesses).  When I finally made friends online who were also on the journey of starting or growing their own businesses, it was a huge breakthrough.  Now I had people to share ideas with.  I had people who were going through the same journey as I was.  They could relate.  They could share things they learned.  They could give advice based on experience.  Having this group opened up so many doors and so much possibility in my business.  

Lesson #5: Offer a deal that your clients/customers can’t say no to. 

I didn’t want to charge anything less than what I believed I should get paid given my years of consulting experience.  But what I failed to see was that I didn’t have any coaching experience.  So although I could charge high prices for my consulting work, I needed to start at a lower price for my coaching service.  Why?  Because I had no proof of my ability to get results via coaching.  And to do that, I needed clients.  And to get clients at the start of my journey, I needed to offer a deal that they couldn’t say no to.  And that’s what I ended up doing.  Had I started earlier, my entire business would have been built earlier. 

But this isn’t an “I wish” story.  This is a “here’s what you can learn” story.  So to summarize:

  1. Image matters.  But not more than getting clients or customers.
  2. Spend time on research.  
  3. Get your first sale as soon as possible.  
  4. Find a support network.
  5. Don’t be scared to offer an amazing deal to get your first few clients/customers. 

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Filed Under: Business Operations Tagged With: business launch, launching, start a business, starting, starting a business

When should you start your business?

July 21, 2021 by Sarah Lakhani Leave a Comment

Should you start a business while you already have a job, or does it make more sense to quit and dedicate all your time to your new business?  This is an ever-debated question, and in my opinion, the answer depends wholly on you and what suits you, personally.  There is no right or wrong option here, just pros and cons for each one.  

From what I’ve seen, most people prefer to start a business while having the security of an income from an existing business in parallel.  That is very likely testament to most people not liking to take risks.  Most people are hard wired to leaning towards safety and security.  It’s human nature.  But then again, there are some people who prefer to take the leap, to jump off the cliff, and to figure things out when under that pressure of having no other option.  As Ried Hoffman says, “An entrepreneur is someone who jumps off a cliff and builds a plane on the way down.” 

So where does that leave you?  If you have an existing job but you’re thinking of starting a business, should you do it in parallel or quit first?  Or what if you’re in between jobs and are wondering whether to starting building your business with 100% of your time, or find another job and work on your business in parallel?  

Starting a Business in Parallel to Another Job

Starting a business while you already have a steady income from an existing job, whether a corporate role, a part-time job or a job that just helps you pay the bills is a great way to remove the pressure of having to generate profits as early as possible.  You can choose to do this if:

  1. You don’t work well under pressure, and not having an income for a little while would be a lot of pressure on you.
  2. You don’t have savings to sustain you for at least 12 months while you focus on building your business.  
  3. You aren’t comfortable with releasing your product or service too quickly, and although you know it can’t be perfect, you need a bit longer to feel ready.  
  4. You are creating a business in an industry or field that is new to you, and thus requires you to build up some knowledge prior to being ready.

Dedicating All Your Time to Starting a Business

Quitting your current job in order to dedicate 100% of your time to creating your business works well if:

  1. You need the pressure in order to get things moving. 
  2. Your current job is extremely time consuming and doesn’t give you the time or brain space that you need in order to spend quality time working on your business.  
  3. You have enough in savings to last you at least 12 months.
  4. You’d like to be able to spend 100% of your time creating your business.
  5. You have existing knowledge in the area of your new business, or have already tested the idea.  

Deciding Which Option is Right for You

As I mentioned earlier, there is no right or wrong.  You could start your business in parallel to an existing job or you can go all in, quit your job and dedicate 100% of your time to building your new business.  To help you make that decision, I’ve created the questions below. 

Q1: Do you have savings to sustain you for at least 12 months?  

Q2: Have you already tested your idea? 

Q3: Do you work well under pressure?

Q4: Do you prefer to put in a lot of work in one go to get your business started (versus a longer, steadier build)?

Q5: Do you need external pressure to “encourage” you to make progress with your projects?  

Q6: Could you immediately find customers for your product or service if needed?  

Q7: Do you have a support network, whether a coach or entrepreneur friends, to guide you through this process?

Q8: Are you absolutely certain that you want to start your own business, and are willing to do whatever it takes?

If you answered yes to at least 7 of these, you could be ready to go all in.

Creating the Right Environment for Success

Whichever option you choose, there are some things you can do to maximize your chances of success in creating and launching your business.  These are the 5 principles that I recommend to anyone starting a business. 

Invest in guidance:  Whether you’re going all in or you’re building your business on the side, getting help from a coach or consultant is going to get you results faster.  And that in turn will motivate and encourage you to keep going.  Nothing kills drive and enthusiasm faster than not seeing results.  

Create a support network:  Other than getting the help that will drive results faster for you, it’s also highly beneficial to have a group of friends or peers who are going through the same journey as you are.  Your friends and family could be highly supportive, but nothing compares to having people to talk to who truly understand the journey you’re on.  

Take breaks:  Make sure to schedule in some time daily for a little self care, a little rejuvenation practice and a little enjoyment.  But also, make sure to schedule in time off on the weekends, and some additional time off every few weeks.  This is beneficial for two reasons: avoiding burnout and allowing new ideas to arise.

Celebrate your wins:  Creating and building your own business is a never-ending journey.  You will always be working on it, making changes, updating, upgrading, expanding, iterating… and so it becomes even more important to make sure that you’re stopping every now and again, celebrating your wins and acknowledging how far you’ve come.  Otherwise, it can start to feel like you’re never actually “done” and you’re never “there”.  

Build accountability:  Whether you’ve invested in a coach or not, having someone to hold you accountable is priceless.  A coach is, by virtue of their role, someone who is there to not only guide you to make the right decisions for you and your business, but also to hold you accountable to implementing and making progress with your business journey.  

Deciding the Best Time to Start Your Business

When it comes to deciding the pathway for you and your business, make decisions based on what’s best for you, your skills, your personality and your preferences.  Your business and this journey that you’re on (or about to embark on) should be enjoyable, exciting and something that you look forward to every day.  Ensure it is those things by leveraging your unique strengths and preferences, not someone else’s.  

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Filed Under: Business Operations Tagged With: launching, start your business, starting a business

Using Business Model Innovation to Create a Unique Business

April 7, 2021 by Sarah Lakhani Leave a Comment

If you’re building a business, you need a business model.  It’s really that simple.  It’s not negotiable, you can’t “sort of” put a business model together.  You’re either in or you’re not.  And I’m hoping you choose the former.  Because a business model is not just necessary, it can literally take your business to completely new levels of success.  And when you do that, it’s usually through Business Model Innovation.  

What is a business model?

Let’s first get through the basics.  What is a business model?  The best definition I’ve come across describes a business model as the the logic of the business.  It describes how the business operates and how it creates value for its customers.  

In other words, a business model describes how your business intends to function.  

That means there are a few things that need to be articulated when talking about your business model.    

Surprisingly, there isn’t a standard definition of what those things are.  Some definitions say you need 3 things and others say you need 9 things as part of your business model.  So I’ve put together my own definition which I think is the most useful (I might be biased)! 

A business model should cover or answer the following:

  • Who is your customer? 
  • What are your customer’s needs? 
  • What is your value proposition, and how will it fulfill the customer need?
  • How will you deliver the value proposition (including any requirements for people/skills/teams, technology, processes etc)?
  • How will you make money? This is sometimes looked at in term of revenue, and at other times, in terms of profit.  To keep things simple, I prefer to use revenue, and then apply an average profit margin to the numbers.  

How to create a strong business model

Your business model should align with your business goals.  If you create it in this way, you will create reinforcing flows within your business model.  What this means is that value across your business model circles around and continues to create increasing amounts of value.  

Let’s use my business and business model as an example.  

Business Vision: My business goal is to create value for entrepreneurs to do what they love and in turn deliver high value and benefits to people and societies (through their products/services and through any charitable/non-profit “pillars” within their businesses).  

Customer: Frustrated entrepreneurs looking to build or scale their businesses.

Customer needs: Clarity on what to do and how to do it.  

My Value Proposition: I run group programs that cover the 4 major areas that entrepreneurs struggle with when building or scaling a business – validating the idea, brand strategy, business strategy and customer strategy.  

Delivery of my Value Proposition: Through group programs, which take place online across 6-8 weeks.

Revenue Model: Revenue is generated through my group programs.  

As I deliver more value to my customers (entrepreneurs), I am able to attract more of them to join my group programs.  This in turn results in more success within their individual businesses, which leads to them delivering more value to their customers and more benefits to give other organizations they support.  But then, as more people become the recipients of either the value provided by my customers or by the organizations they support, more opportunities are created across societies for more people to become entrepreneurs.  And that increases the pool of potential customers who are able to then join my program.  It’s a cycle.  You put more in and more comes around which then allows you to put even more in, and so on.  

What is business model innovation?

Business Model innovation arises from challenging the different parts of your business and designing an ecosystem that gives rise to a new business model.  

New business models arise out of a variety of reasons.  There could be new technology available that you can capitalize on, or perhaps you absolutely must find a way to maintain your market share after new businesses start popping up in your industry or area of specialization.  Perhaps you’ve uncovered some new customer needs or new potential customers to serve.  All of these would require you to look at your business model and figure out new ways to profitably deliver value to solve a problem that your customer is facing.  

When you take the time to do that, you will be looking at business model innovation.  

How do you develop an innovative business model?

The most straightforward way I have come across to do this is to ask the question “How can I/we do [the opposite of what is happening]?”.  

Think of all the innovative businesses (and services) we all know and use these days.  At some point in the design of their business models, they would have had to ask themselves:

“How can customers rent movies without having to pick up a DVD/video?”
“How can customers rent a car without coming into the car rental office?”
“How can customers check into their flight without going to a check-in counter?
“How can people look at their photos without printing them?”

There are many other ways to develop an innovative business model, but this is by far the easiest.  

And it’s important to remember that this same technique leads to great services which don’t have to be ground-breaking innovations, but can make a big difference for your business.  For example:

“How can customers feel like they’re in our restaurant when they’re eating delivery?” has lead to high-end restaurants offering decor, candles, cutlery and more with their food delivery, particularly during COVID-19 lockdown periods, in order to replicate the restaurant ambiance.  

Developing an Innovative Business Model for Your Business 

So let’s go back to my definition of a business model.  How can you challenge different parts of your business model in order to create business model innovation? 

Ask yourself “how” at each stage.

How can you address your customer needs in a different way?
How can you address your customer’s needs at a lower price?
How can you address your customer’s needs without going through an intermediary?How can you deliver more value without charging more?
How can you deliver your product/service without acquiring the person/skill needed?How can you make money without charging your customer?

You can go as deep as you want to.  It is only by asking these questions and exploring options that you’ll be able to find a solution that is different from what is currently available.  And that, in turn will lead to a business model that is different from those available in your industry.  And that’s what we’re all looking for, isn’t it?  

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Filed Under: Business Operations Tagged With: business clarity, business idea, business model, business model innovation, business operations, innovation

Why is Organizational Design Important?

December 1, 2020 by Sarah Lakhani Leave a Comment

If you’ve come across the term “organizational design” or any variation of it (“organization design”, organizational design and development”, “organizational development”, etc), you hopefully already know it is an important topic, and one that is critical to the success of your business.  The main reason for this is that OD brings together the organization’s purpose with the people and support systems required to bring it to fruition – which is absolutely critical for success. 

For information on what Organizational Design is, go to the article “What is Organizational Design”. It will open in a separate tab so you can come back to this article afterwards.

The lack of a holistic OD exercise when it comes to setting up or changing elements such as strategy, structure or talent can result in a plethora of unwanted outcomes.  I’ve listed the most important reasons to embark on a full OD project, based on my experience and the issues I’ve seen unravel in departments and organizations that did not consider all the elements of organizational design when making changes that required it.

Reason #1: To align your structure to your strategy

In “What is Organizational Design”, I described the importance of an OD engagement to create alignment between your organization’s structure and resources.  If you haven’t read the article yet, I suggest you read it and then come back to this one.  Back to our topic – OD is important if you’re interested in making sure your structure supports and enables your strategy.  And that in turn is important if you are looking to have a successful business.  

Reason #2: To ensure all required activities are accounted for 

Without the detail involved in an Organizational Design engagement, it’s very possible to completely miss some activities that may be real game-changers for your structure.  These activities might be part of solutions to existing problems or even entirely new opportunities.  By going through the OD framework, you’ll make sure that all required activities are documented.  

Reason #3: To ensure structural gaps are avoided

Following from the previous point, without the detail involved in an Organizational Design engagement, it’s also possible to miss structural requirements entirely.  This could be a missing function, if the function is small (could still be important though!).  Other potential issues are the hierarchy and reporting lines of different teams.  Using the OD framework, you’ll be able to make sure that you’re not missing any structural pieces to ensure the success of your organization.  

Reason #4: To ensure adequate headcount

If you make a mistake with your activities and teams, there is a good chance you’ll end up with the wrong (lower) headcount too.  And that’s not something that’s going to make success any easier.  So as a result of points 2 & 3 above, you’ll also be able to make sure that you’re estimating required headcount more accurately.  

Reason #5: To provide a strong base from which to draw up job descriptions, skills and role requirements

At this point, I think it’s easy to see that with the points mentioned above and the steps you would have followed throughout the OD engagement, you’ll have plenty of detail for job descriptions, skills and requirements for specific roles.  It may take some time to get to this point, but by the time you’re here in the process, everything becomes very fluid.  In fact, it is much easier and a lot more comprehensive to write up a job description after going through this process (versus doing one from scratch).  It also means that you won’t miss any important accountabilities or skills as you’ll have a complete picture of what the role does and how it fits in the organization.  

Reason #6: To easily identify processes and process steps

Similar to point 5 above, when you go through the Organizational Design framework, you’ll be able to identify processes (including, of course, who is involved in those processes) very easily.  You can then extract entire processes and use them in training, communicating new changes and documenting your processes. 

Reason #7: To provide the basis needed to define measurement 

Lastly, with all the information above, and knowing what the organization is striving to achieve, you’ll be much better equipped with identifying the best metrics and measurement frameworks to provide visibility on how well your organization is performing in achieving its objectives.  

Final Thoughts on the Importance of Organizational Design

In closing, I would like to stress that “designing a structure” is not the same as following an Organizational Design framework.  The former focuses only on the organizational structure – how to organize people – potentially leaving out important areas such as alignment to strategy, split of accountabilities and activities across teams and people, defining processes to ensure efficiency and effectiveness, defining measurement frameworks, identifying required skills and competencies, and deciding on performance rewards, frameworks and mechanisms.  So if you’re looking for something holistic, Organizational Design is it.

What are you biggest challenges with Organizational Design at the moment? Do you have any current or planned Organizational Design work that you would like more information on? Post your comments and any questions below, and if you can help anyone else out with an answer, don’t hesitate to do so! As always, if you’ve found this article useful, share it with someone who’ll benefit from it as well!

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Filed Under: Business Operations

What is Organizational Design?

November 24, 2020 by Sarah Lakhani Leave a Comment

Organizational Design is an extremely important topic and one of my favorite management consulting topics.  Understanding what Organizational Design (OD) is and being able to successfully complete an OD engagement are skills that will see you through many challenges in your career and business.  Here is the starting point.

Definition of Organizational Design

Organizational Design (also called “organization design”, organizational design and development”, and other variations of these) is a broad yet in-depth topic that aligns an organization or department’s strategy, structure, processes, skills/talent, measurement and reward system to set it up for success.  It is this alignment of the structure, processes, skills, measurement and rewards systems to the business strategy and objective that makes Organizational Design all-encompassing.  This is why it is such an important topic.  

Components of an Organizational Design Engagement 

An OD practitioner will ensure that several things have been put into place while working on an OD engagement.  These elements are:

  1. that a coherent strategy is available or has been developed,
  2. that an appropriate structure has been designed which supports and enables the strategy, 
  3. that roles and teams within the structure have been defined, 
  4. that processes have been mapped out to ensure maximum efficiency, 
  5. that measurement frameworks for both people and processes have been defined and set up, and
  6. that an additional rewards framework for the former has been put in place.  

Behavioral Component of Organizational Design 

OD also includes a behavioral component that supplements the scientific approaches to designing an organization.  This is so important, because it indicates a recognition that the human aspect of OD has a large influence on the scientific or “business” aspect of it.  A big part of the behavioral component is anchored in stakeholder management and change management.  Other pieces of behavioral considerations include an understanding of organization culture and how specific structures, hierarchy, areas of responsibility and specific accountabilities may be threatened or even unsuccessful within the current organization’s environment.  

Why is Organizational Design Important?

The OD practice is important, most of all, because it drives success for the organization.  The stitching together of strategy, structure, processes, skills and more provides the organization the best possible chance for a positive outcome.  Without the alignment created by Organizational Design, you could have a great strategy, great people and effective processes, measurement systems and rewards in place, but they could be completely misaligned, not supporting or enabling the business strategy or objectives at all – clearly a big problem.    

What does Organizational Design Entail?

End-to-end, Organizational Design involves the following steps:

1. Articulating the strategy, goal, current state and gaps

Although the OD engagement may not include setting or defining the strategy, it is important for there to be a strategy in place.  The strategy must be well articulated so that the OD practitioners, stakeholders and other team members can use it to ensure the rest of the OD work supports and enables the right strategy.  

2. Designing the structure

It should come as no surprise that the OD engagement will include designing the organization structure.  The difference between merely constructing a structure and constructing one within the context of an OD engagement is that the latter ensures the structure supports and enables the strategy, whereas the former may not necessarily follow a methodology to ensure it does.  

3. Defining roles, teams, hierarchy, span of control and accountabilities within the structure 

An OD piece of work provides users a methodology and framework with which to identify roles & teams.  Although this can be done separately, when doing it as part of an OD engagement, you’ll find that the outcome is clearer and easily to achieve.  

4. Creating job descriptions for all the roles within the structure, highlighting both hard and soft skills

Because of the detail involved in the OD work, it becomes very easy to produce job descriptions and, if needed, team descriptions.  Both will cover accountabilities, responsibilities and required skills of either the team or the individual.

5. Mapping out processes for at least the main or major activities throughout the organization/department 

Again, because of the detail involved in the OD work, mapping out the major processes is also something that can be done fairly easily and quickly.  One of the key benefits of an OD engagement is that by putting in the work required by the methodology in the beginning, all of the details become clear and easy to identify later on.  

6. Defining measures of success for teams and processes

After defining the team roles, job descriptions and major processes, it is necessary to articulate the measures of success for teams and processes.  With the information already available at this point, these measures are also fairly easy to identify, as the team accountabilities and processes have already been defined.  

7. Deciding on rewards for performance

The last part of the OD engagement covers rewards for performance.  This is very often left out, but it shouldn’t be, as it cements leadership’s commitment to the strategy and to ensuring everything is being done to achieve it.   

A Final Note on Organizational Design

Hopefully your interest in Organizational Design has been piqued.  It is, as I mentioned earlier, one of the best ways to ensure success in your organization – and who doesn’t want success?

Do you think your organization could benefit from some Organizational Design work?  What alignment do you think could be approved in your area? Post your comments and any questions below, and if you can help anyone else out with an answer, don’t hesitate to do so! As always, if you’ve found this article useful, share it with someone who’ll benefit from it as well!

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Filed Under: Business Operations

Is it Time for a Restructure?

October 8, 2020 by Sarah Lakhani Leave a Comment

Times have changed.  In fact, times are always changing!  But one thing probably hasn’t changed much – your organization structure.  People have come and gone, operations may have changed, but – at least on paper and in job descriptions – you haven’t (yet!) looked at your organization or team’s structure and roles to see how they should be adjusted.  

There are so many reasons to review and update your team or organization’s structure.  Sometimes, you may not even realize you’re in one of these scenarios, and therefore won’t be aware that you should be thinking about restructuring!  To help you out, I’m going to cover four of the most common reasons leading to a need for a restructure and what you should do if you find yourself in any of these scenarios.  

Restructure Reason #1: Attrition

If you’ve recently lost a lot of employees, you may find gaps in some areas of your team or organization.  This isn’t a problem if the gaps are in areas where the workload is currently low.  However, if the gaps are in critical areas or teams, you’ll want to do a rebalancing quite quickly to make sure that your operations are not impacted.  

Action: Draw up your organization structure and indicate the following on it:
– Expected/planned number of positions
– Current filled headcount
– Vacancies 
– Risk score of current headcount (1 – low risk, 3 – medium risk, 5 – high risk)
– Movement of people to areas that are more critical at this time

Once that’s in place, re-assess the people in positions to determine whether this could be a permanent change or if you need a more in-depth review into the structure to achieve that. To do this, mark the people who you have moved from one team to another on your organization chart.  Working with your HR team, and aligning with your specific organization’s processes, determine whether the people you have moved are both willing and able to stay in these new roles permanently.  For areas with people who are not both willing and able to stay in their new roles permanently, you’ll need to work on a long-term resource solution.

Restructure Reason #2: Changing customer expectations

There is no better reason to review your internal structure than to do it so you can meet (and exceed!) your customers’ expectations.  Keeping your customers more than happy is and will always be the key to success.  Customer expectations change in line with developments across a wide spectrum of areas such as technology, the environment, the economy, trends, etc.  Customers may expect you to understand their preferences better, now that we have data we can use to do that.  Or they may expect better delivery or scheduling options, since competitors have raised the bar.  They could even expect a concierge service for VIP customers who are part of the high tier loyalty scheme.  For all these examples, there are internal structure implications that need to be met in the form of a customer insights team, a scheduling team and a concierge service team.  

Action: Identify any customer expectations that you are not able to completely meet today.  Going through them, make note of any new roles or teams that you need to put into place to be able to meet these expectations. 

Restructure Reason #3: Changes in the external operating environment

The external operating environment, which consists of competitors, markets, regulator and regulations, suppliers, partners, and more, can also have an impact on how you structure your team.  An example of how regulation has had an impact on structures is easily seen with the EU Data Privacy Regulation.  In the couple of years leading up to its implementation, and in the years since then, organizations that have European Union residents within their customer base have had to put in place a Data Privacy Officer, and, in order to be able to satisfy the requirements in the new regulation, most have also implemented an entire Data Privacy Office.  Some organizations may even have Data Privacy Champions in each of their departments.  

Action: Examine changes in your external operating environment.  You may find it easier to first make a list of what these areas may be and then look at each one to determine whether any changes have or will be taking place.  Next to each change, note whether a change in structure (i.e. a new role or team) is required.  

Restructure Reason #4: Aligning to a new strategy

Probably the most common of all reasons to restructure.  If you’re set up to deliver against a strategy, and that strategy changes, or even if new or updated objectives are drawn up, revisiting your structure is more than recommended, it’s basically a must.  If, for example, you run a B2B business, your sales and marketing teams will be set up to interact with businesses.  Content creation will likely cover lead generation, sales decks for the trade to use, product demos and similar content appropriate and useful for a B2B business.  If, however, you decide to open up a B2C channel, you’ll have to start creating different content – appropriate for end-customer consumption – and to do that, you’ll likely need different sales and marketing skills and/or teams.  

Action: Revisit your strategy.  Has anything changed compared to the previous year?  If so, what are the skills or teams required in order to fulfill the new objectives?

A Final Thought on the Time between Restructures

You should re-evaluate your structure every 4 years.  That’s a long enough cycle to let the previous structure settle and produce benefits to the organization and a short enough cycle to ensure that the structure doesn’t get stale or fall out of touch with developments in your industry, customer expectations, technology etc.  A department or an organization that doesn’t restructure every now and again is at risk of falling behind the competition and disappointing customers along the way, neither of which is good for business.  

What is your biggest struggle with your organization’s structure at the moment?  Is there an end goal you’re working towards within your team or organization structure?  Post your comments and any questions below, and if you can help anyone else out with an answer, don’t hesitate to do so! As always, if you’ve found this article useful, share it with someone who’ll benefit from it as well!

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Filed Under: Business Operations

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